A special planet

A special planet

Exhibition Text

Of all the objects in our solar system, only Earth can support life as we know it. It is the right size, and the right distance from the Sun. Its temperature range is such that its free water is present and available for life. And the Earth’s climate has been stable for billions of years, a factor in allowing life to emerge, flourish, and evolve. How life began, how it evolved, and how it affected the evolution of the planet itself, are among the great questions of our time.

How did life begin?One of the simplest definitions of a life-form is: anything with the capacity to reproduce and regulate itself. Before life began, the complex organic, or hydrocarbon-bearing, molecules that make up RNA and DNA, the building blocks of life, must have formed. No one knows exactly how, but many ideas have been put forward.